Kuşcenneti National Park
Bandırma Kuşcenneti National Park is located on the northeastern shores of Kuşgölü. Kuşcenneti is reached by a 3-kilometer road deviating south from the 15th kilometer of the Bandırma-Balıkesir highway. Its borders were expanded with the Official Gazette and reached 24047 ha. The only reason why Kuşcenneti is reserved as a "National Park" is the bird communities it harbors. Birds' Paradise is the smallest of the national parks in Turkey. Within the expanded area, an average of 16400 hectares is the lake area and most of the other land is treasury land. Despite its small size, Kuşcenneti is one of the most visited national parks. The present location of Bandırma Kuşcenneti was discovered in 1939 by Prof. Dr. Curt Kosswick, Chair of Zoology at Istanbul University Faculty of Science, and his wife Leonore Kosswick. As a result of the work of Kosswick, who named this place "Birdcenneti", the value of this beautiful paradise was soon understood among nature lovers, and in 1952, a research station was established here by the I.U. Institute of Hydrobiology. In 1959, it was included in the forest regime by the Ministry of Forestry and declared a National Park.
